Feedback: Manual Fifa

Problems with switching the play; if a driven pass goes close to a player in the middle of the pitch then the focus (control) is given to that player and not the intended recipient out on the wing. The ball will often dribble out of play without any player trying to collect the pass. Can be overcome by manual switching as the ball gets near to the player but sometimes this is too late to be able to keep the ball in play.
Even with player switching set to 0 (i.e. total control to the player) the game decides to switch player for you.
Switching player sometimes results in the player you have taken control of stopping his run and then starting again, thus losing ground and potentially letting a striker clean through on goal.
An option for longer half length for ranked matches would be good i.e. 6 minutes or 10 minutes.
Tutorials/Challenges/Scenarios - A practice mode where you are set tasks and are rewarded for successfully completing them. This could apply to all control types with the highest rewards available for completing them with manual controls. Could include shooting, passing, crossing and defending and could work in a similar way to the training modes adopted in one of EAs other titles Madden.
Manual practice mode - I would like a mode where you get lines drawn from your player in the direction that he is facing so that you know what direction the ball is going to move when you press the pass or shoot button. As you are powering up your pass or shot a power meter could fill up along this line to show you the distance that the ball will travel. It would be difficult to implement this because of course you don't always pass the ball in the direction that your facing but I'm sure the clever chaps at EA could do something with this idea. It could be used in any game mode for those wanting to learn manual controls e.g. practice arena, exhibition match, manager mode, unranked matches.
More leaderboard points for winning with manual controls - this recognises that it requires more controller skill to play with manual controls compared with assisted controls and therefore gives greater rewards. Those wanting to be at the top of the leaderboards will be encouraged to try manual controls to get the maximum points from each match that they can. An alternative to this would be to have separate leaderboards for manual and assisted players but this encourages the divide that is already in place between those players rather than joining them together.
Manual control tournaments - online tournaments that can only be entered with manual controls e.g. the featured online tournaments in Fifa Ultimate Team. Again this raises awareness of the different control settings available and encourages people to try manual controls without punishing them for not doing so.
Control setting saved with replay files - any files uploaded to EAFootballWorld have the match type, team star ratings and difficulty setting. I would like to see control settings added to the file data so that people can showcase their brilliant manual football and goals.|||Nice ideas. I particularly like the manual practise mode, that would be really beneficial.
I'm currently having a really tough time with first time play. If I fully charge a pass or shot before the reciever/shot taker makes contact with the ball, the action is just cancelled. It feels really badly broken.
Anyone else getting this problem with manual controls?|||I agree with the manual pass practice idea too; I think I've asked for something like that back on the old forums but no idea where. As you say it should be available for offline single player - maybe just a short, 5 yard line emanating from the player and a power bar, rather than something saying exactly where the ball will land. I would be fine with it online but only if every manual user in the match (catering for Clubs as well) had the assist on-screen, and I doubt that'd be popular!
Alternatively, if the online opponent has the manual aid on, you should be able to see his aid as well. That would encourage people to switch it off as the benefit of being able to aim passes/shots is offset by being unable to surprise the opponent. I remember my mate's ISS on PS2 had a penalty system similar to FIFA's, but you could press a button to see where you were aiming the ball/keeper. Once you were playing multiplayer, you pretty much had to switch it off if you wanted to score a pen.
Just a thought. Dunno if that'd work.|||

I agree with the manual pass practice idea too; I think I've asked for something like that back on the old forums but no idea where. As you say it should be available for offline single player - maybe just a short, 5 yard line emanating from the player and a power bar, rather than something saying exactly where the ball will land. I would be fine with it online but only if every manual user in the match (catering for Clubs as well) had the assist on-screen, and I doubt that'd be popular!
Alternatively, if the online opponent has the manual aid on, you should be able to see his aid as well. That would encourage people to switch it off as the benefit of being able to aim passes/shots is offset by being unable to surprise the opponent. I remember my mate's ISS on PS2 had a penalty system similar to FIFA's, but you could press a button to see where you were aiming the ball/keeper. Once you were playing multiplayer, you pretty much had to switch it off if you wanted to score a pen.
Just a thought. Dunno if that'd work.

Hadn't even thought about having it on for online matches. I would think that once you have the hang of manual you would turn it off anyway because it would just annoy you with it being on the screen. I agree there shouldn't be any sort of advantage in using it, I was thinking of it purely as a way to introduce more people to playing manual.|||Excellent suggestions! One other thing I would add as we can now pick lobbies based on location, level, etc. How about based on level of assists? A fully manual player can decide to only play other manual players. If memory serves this has been asked for in past years.|||For me the biggest improvement EA could do for manual is to create greater differentiation between the two ground pass options - one should be dedicated for short ground passes and the other for longer. There is no need for a through pass button with manual controls when your aim dictates whether it's a direct or a leading pass.
Next for me is passing speed. Doing the above might alleviate the issue by itself but in any case ground pass velocity is slower in fifa 11 than previous games and causes problems when we already have such little time on the ball as it is. Thus getting off quick passes can be more difficult than it should be due to the lengthy time it takes to power-up the pass. As I said, dedicating one pass to be a longer ground pass, and thus giving it a higher starting velocity, would probably take care of this issue.
The last big issue I've had with manual in FIFA 11 is the game correctly determining which player my pass is intended for, as in I'll put a perfectly good ball into space only for the player to not respond and go after the pass. This is a less frequent problem and an annoyance more than anything but should be looked at nonetheless.
Oh, and there still doesn't seem something quite right with shooting to me - it's as if the variety of shots that should be possible with manual controls is not enough. I'm not sure I know how to explain it but I think manual shooting has room for improvement.|||I agree ground passes are to slow, tackling is to easy and I find it's welcoming high pressure abuse more this year. I have no problem with playing styles, but if you play high pressure you should have to play a possession game to balance your stamina level out. But 90% of my opponents play high pressure, counter attacking and it's just break neck speed all over the pitch. Attacking and defending need to be balanced better next year
The problem with Manual passing
The intended receiver does not make a big enough effort to receive a pass, especially easy passes. Every pass needs to be pinpoint accuracy and this coupled with intense, relentless pressure leads to poor gameplay. If the pass receiver had better awareness, you wouldn't need pinpoint passes and wouldn't need assisted passing. It would obviously make passing to running teammates, and perfect through balls more difficult but that's how it should be. Counter attacking footy would then have some balance between possession.
Increasing fatigue levels, decreasing tackling abilities, slowing gameplay speed and increasing half length are also necessary to improving manual passing